Rain pushes Sprint, Nationwide races to Sunday

Joey Logano's luck ran out yesterday, when rain washed him out of this weekend's Chevy Rock & Roll 400.

And Tropical Storm Hanna also changed the shape of tonight's scheduled race, which NASCAR quickly postponed until Sunday at 1 p.m., a surprisingly early call by officials, who decided potential traffic problems from heavy rain and muddy parking fields might be too much to deal with today, even if there were much chance for a window of clear weather.

"I can't change the weather, so I just go with it," said Logano, fourth quickest in Sprint Cup practice, of his planned NASCAR Sprint Cup debut with the Joe Gibbs Toyota team. That debut will now come next week at Loudon, N.H.

The rain puts Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, the top two in the standings, on the front row for Sunday's race, which will be followed Sunday night by the Nationwide 250, which had been scheduled for last night.

Jim Hunter, NASCAR vice president, said "We have postponed everything until Sunday, based on the weather and the forecast and what state and local officials are telling us about pending wind and rain.

"I can't recall another situation where we've gone out this far. But with the high winds forecast and the rain, we felt there are mitigating circumstances."

The postponement will be costly for NASCAR in one respect, with ABC now not broadcasting the race but rather ESPN.

While NASCAR used rain tires in the Nationwide race a few weeks ago at Montreal, there are no plans to use rain tires here, in either the Cup race or the Nationwide race.

Now that the field for NASCAR's championship chase is almost set, it's time for nine of the 12 drivers in the hunt to assess their chances to beat Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson for the title over the final 10 weeks of the season.

And 25 races into the season it would appear that if Busch, Edwards or Johnson doesn't win the Cup championship, it will be a fluke.

None of the other drivers in the sport has shown much for those three this year, and even Johnson, though he's a two-time champ looking for a third straight, may be iffy in the chase.

"It's the same thing people said about the New England Patriots," Jeff Burton said. "The Patriots were undefeated, nobody could beat them. The Giants couldn't play, Eli Manning stunk, the coach was terrible. And they kicked their butt when it counted.

"Ten races is an eternity. You know what can happen in 10 races.

"Kyle Busch and those guys stood above the crowd, no question. But if there's one race (in the chase) they don't do that, then it's on.

"It's all about being hot now. It's all about getting it done now.

"It ain't over 'til it's over. These people are not invincible. Kyle Busch, he isn't never going to make a mistake. Carl Edwards is not never going to make a mistake.

"You have to execute on those mistakes. But the first thing to do is just put pressure on them. You've got to show them you can beat them.

"Once you show them you can deal with them, that changes their mindset … and it's game on.

"I wouldn't consider it a fluke it someone else won."

Reaction to the latest running of NASCAR's winged car was hot and furious yesterday, after Jimmie Johnson's runaway win in Los Angeles last Sunday. But getting crewmen or drivers on the record with their complaints is difficult, given NASCAR's June edict to them essentially to "shut up and drive," and stop publically complaining.

When pressed on the issue yesterday, Jeff Gordon, one of the sport's top spokesmen, again declined to say anything on the issue: "I'm just the dumb driver, or so they tell me.…" Gordon said.

Several top, winning crew chiefs complain "It used to be fun to come to the track, but now it's no fun to come to the track any more. Not for the drivers, not for the crews, not for the crew chiefs. This sport is just no fun anymore."

Two easy changes could improve the winged car, according to several team engineers and crew chiefs: the lower edge of the odd-shaped front bumper should be raised two inches, to give the car more shock-travel in the corners, and thus better downforce; and the chassis frame rails should be lowered three inches, to lower the center-of-gravity significantly and make the car handle much better in the center of the corners. Teams have been pushing for those changes for some time, but NASCAR officials continue to say no.

The day's top news:

□ Tony Stewart, as expected, announced Darian Grubb as his crew chief for 2009. Grubb, a long-time Rick Hendrick man, working with Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus, ran Johnson's team for a few weeks last year when Knaus was on suspension.

□ Jay Frye, who has engineered a solid turnaround at Team Red Bull is back from a post-California trip to the company's Austrian headquarters, and is reported to be seriously considering moving to the Stewart-Ryan Newman Chevy team next season. According to those close to the situation, Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz wants Frye to put former Formula One driver Scott Speed in a full Cup ride next season, though there is still only sponsorship support for two drivers. Brian Vickers and AJ Allmendinger are the team's Cup drivers, and Frye wants to keep both. If Frye stays, that would likely mean a three-car team.

■ Mike Mulhern can be reached at mmulhern@wsjournal.com.